2445 - A Journey of Service Focused on Transparency and Real Solutions with Ebie Lynch

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0:46Visit podverified.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now is Lieutenant Governor Candidate E.B. Lynch in the state of California. E.B., it is great to have you on the show. Well, thank you for having me on the show. I do appreciate it. Fellow military veteran, tell me about your military experience. Well, you know, I was blessed. I tell you, Josh, I had 24 wonderful years in the military and I retired. I got to see a lot of things that most people, everyday people didn't get to see. I got to see the world. I got a lot of discipline.

1:34And we don't realize how much discipline we should have until we get it right. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles and I thought, yes, I'm going to be an actress. And my mom said, no, not my child. And ended up in the military with the prompting of my older brother, my mother. And it was really the best choice ever. I think everyone should do at least one tour in the military because it helps to shape your worldview. And, yeah, I got a very big appreciation of our freedoms here in the U.S. because of what I saw in other countries. And when you get those experiences of being able to, whether it's, you know, serving overseas, when it's, you know, kind of being put into a position, you know, you were from South Central.

2:25Like I was, you know, I was from some little podunk town in rural Western Michigan, you know, and then, of course, I joined my Navy boot camp. And, you know, I'm surrounded by guys from Detroit. You know, I'm surrounded guys from, you know, guys from all over the place. And, you know, you learn to get along real quick. Otherwise, you're going to have a tough time. Yes. You know, and Josh, that's one of the things I appreciated the most about the military. I say that God allowed me to get all the skills I need for this current candidacy run prior to me running. because in the military, you have to put all that other stuff aside because the mission comes first.

3:05And I think that's what we need here in California. We need to put aside all of the special interests that some of us go into, you know, service with and look at what is really important, what's going to serve the people and put that, you know, at the forefront. Phoebe, I kind of skipped right into wanting to talk about your military experience right away. one thing I normally love to do right at the beginning is just, you know, ask folks what they do for fun or what they're geeking out on when they're not at work. Now, I understand running a political campaign right now or being the star of a political campaign keeps you pretty busy.

3:40But when you do get downtime, what have you been doing for fun? You know, I'm a geek, Josh. I love to read because I've always had one of those minds that said, hmm, why? Why does it work that way? can we can we change it if we changed it if we tweaked it what would we get so I love feeding my curiosity through good books and right now I'm actually reading a very good book that a good friend gave to me because he is the author and I've been blessed to start this book he it's two books really the first one is called I'm pregnant and I know who the father is by Mark S. Bilke I tell you, this is a wonderful book.

4:24The other one is fear. I don't know if you can see that. Well, there I go. Oh, I'm out of screen. Okay. It says fear must not win. Yes. Fear must not win. Finding peace, confidence, and courage in challenging times. Because what I find is the battlefield truly is in the mind, you know, what we think and how we perceived situations, the greatest of greats in our country, in our world understood that. And, you know, so that's what I try to do is feed the good mind instead of the bad one. Well, and there's a lot, I think, right now, if I couldn't, I don't get to do this very often. So I'm actually grateful.

5:06I, you know, you know, very much kind of an armchair observer and participant and, you know, what's going on in our democracy. And as everyone recording this right now. You know, professionally, I've served as a consumer expert and a consumer advocate and teacher for the past 20 years. And obviously, as you know, EB, one of the biggest concerns right now is the cost of living. It's the fact that groceries have risen in prices as much as they have. And we really got, you know, shellacked, you know, during COVID, which, you know, which is who could have predicted that, which is awful. So there's just a lot of things maybe we didn't have control over, you You know, but for right now, you know, my observation is I think a lot of people just want to kind of right the ship a little bit, maybe a little less drama, a little bit more just kind of stoic leadership.

5:57I don't know what to take on where we are culturally. And especially, you know, I kind of started with some of the systemic challenges that we face, which, of course, is, you know, the biggest one being cost of living, cost of fuel, groceries, a lot of other expenses have unfortunately hit working class Americans pretty hard. Yes, Josh, you hit it right on the money. I tell you, people want less argument and more results. You know, that's one of the reasons I got involved, because we hear a lot of rhetoric coming out of the legislature, out of government, from government officials. And at the end of the day, they just want you to do your job and do it well so that they can be able to live well.

6:36People aren't asking to be rich. They're just asking not to be, you know, taxed to death to the point where they're considered poor, you know, for California standards. People say, oh, you make a lot of money. But I pay a lot. Non-California. Right. Right. Right. And so, yeah, that's that's one of the things that I am definitely going to do something about once I get into my position as lieutenant governor, because I don't believe that we don't have the resources that we do. It's been mismanaged both on purpose and not on purpose, on purpose, because there are some who got into the legislature because they don't have integrity and they steal.

7:17just call a spade a spade. They steal from the common folks like you and me. And then there are those who just don't know what they're doing and they don't even take the time to figure it out because they're comfortable. No one's asking them the hard questions. Well, I ask the hard questions and I demand accountability and transparency. So that's one of the things I learned while I've served in the military, integrity first and all we do, right? If you don't have integrity, you don't have anything. You don't have laws because our laws are predicated on people with integrity to carry them out. And so that's where I'm coming from.

7:53I'm going to demand accountability so that we can pay less. I think we're spending too much because there are people who are not good stewards of our money. Yes. EB, so with your background in healthcare, obviously I would imagine the cost of health in the United States is probably also something that you're mindful of. You know, I know it's just very unfortunate, you know, for I'll just, you know, kind of advocate for small business owners who, you know, were able to we were able to now, thankfully, I am a recipient of socialized medicine through the VA, which I qualified for through my disability.

8:35And there's not a day that goes by. I am not so grateful for the men and women who serve in the VA and provide the health care to those who paid far greater sacrifices than I do, but I'm so grateful that we have that care for them. On the other hand, as a small business owner, just for health coverage for my wife and my two college student sons, our health insurance cost when we were on the exchange went from$800 a month now for our premium to over$1 ,700 a month. That is such a big ticket item. And, you know, that's for me, you know, and, you know, we'll find a way to pay for it. But I feel so bad, you know, for people that were already fairly fixed income.

9:23And they're like, where am I going to come up with an extra$900 just to make sure that, you know, if my kid breaks his arm, he can, you know, he can get the care that they deserve. Another just major, major concern I know a lot of Americans struggle with. Yes. And Josh, I'm glad that you brought that up because it is a concern. It's a concern of mine because I'm a single mom and I felt it every single time my daughter had to go to the dentist, to the doctor for any reason. So I am one of you. I'm an everyday American struggling to keep up with the rising costs. And I said, you know what, I'm not the kind of person to complain about it.

10:00Let's do something about it. And that's what I intend to do. One of the things I want to focus on is preventative health. You know, our food supply here in the United States is very much regulated. We know this. There are standards that we have to keep. But yet in California, we import in a lot of our food from countries that don't regulate what we're eating, what we're putting in our bodies. I want to make sure that if we are setting a standard, then we should keep that standard by growing our food here at home. So start at home, make sure that we have healthy food that the people of California are ingesting and they have on their shelves.

10:42And then we're going to, because preventative is half the battle, you prevent it, you don't have to worry about paying for it later on. And then I wanted to work with the different healthcare systems out there, because you know, in California, we are so over-regulated, a lot of small, medium, and big businesses are leaving our state because of it. So we need to make sure that the regulations that are there are necessary. Because if you're over-regulated, it doesn't just affect the big companies, it affects the mom and pop and mid-sized companies also. Those small businesses can't afford to take in those extra expenses.

11:23So what do they do? They give it to the consumer. Well, then that is a domino effect because we can't afford to take it in too. So I want to make sure that we're regulating only as necessary. And I want to make sure that we're giving true help to the consumers and to our small, midsize, and larger businesses when they stay in California and take care of Californians. Well, E.B. Lynch, your Your primary is coming up literally as of when we're recording this within a few days. What can people do to support you right now? What is most valuable for you? Well, the biggest thing is to go onto my website and get involved, right?

12:08If you have questions, ask. I have an area where it says Ask EB Anything, and my team and I are so dedicated to making sure to reaching out. Even if we don't reach out right away, we will reach out. And I tell people, remember, our government is for the people, by the people. So make sure you get involved because it's your government. And if you don't speak up by casting your vote, well, then you can't complain later on when you get what you get. So get involved. I love it. E.B. Lynch for California Lieutenant Governor 2026. E.B., thank you so much for joining us. This is so fun. And I love to be able to talk with folks that are out there in public service.

12:53And so thank you so much for the work that you're doing and sharing the good word and advocating for others. Thank you. And I'd just like to give you my website at www.e-ly-nch-for-california.com. I love it. Thank you. We got it all linked up in the show notes as well. If you want one click access, EB, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for the conversation. Thank you for having me, Josh.

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